Minister Doherty welcomes 15.5 percent year-on-year fall in number of people on the Live Register

Thursday, 10 January 2019

The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, T.D., has welcomed the latest Live Register figures which were published today. They show that the Live Register figure for December 2018 stands at 199,669 people.

This represents a year-on-year decrease of 15.5 percent compared with December 2017 and a decrease of 27.6 percent compared with December 2016. As the number of people employed in the education sector has increased over the past three years, the Christmas holidays are strongly reflected in the Live Register figures for December 2018, which showed a month-on-month increase of 1.7 percent or 3,408, compared with an increase of 3,059 in December 2017.

There has also been a steady fall in the number of people on the Live Register who are long-term unemployed (unemployed for 12 months or more). Today’s figures show that the number of long-term unemployed for December 2018 is 79,542. This is a 1.3 percent month-on-month decrease compared to November 2018 which was 80,557 and a decrease of 18.8 percent compared to December 2017 and 33.6 percent compared to December 2016.

Minister Doherty commented:

"On an annual basis, the Live Register has been falling rapidly. In the last 12 months to December 2018, it fell by 15.5 percent, compared with a 14.3 percent fall in the previous 12 months.

“While the Government has been successful in helping many people who lost their jobs or their businesses during the economic recession to get back working again, this New Year brings new challenges, including Brexit. We will work to provide the best possible environment for economic growth along with job retention and job creation in 2019, as well as introducing a renewed focus on the best possible approaches to enable those remaining numbers of long-term unemployed to find suitable work.”

Ends

Further information

The following are some examples of the assistance and support currently provided by the Department to jobseekers and employers:

The Youth Employment Support Scheme (YESS) – young and disadvantaged jobseekers

Introduced in October 2018, the Department’s Youth Employment Support Scheme (YESS) is a work experience scheme targeted exclusively at young jobseekers, aged 18 to 24, who are either long-term unemployed or face significant barriers to employment. To date, 88 participants have commenced the scheme, with six more due to start on Monday next, 14th January.

JobsIreland.ie is the Department’s national recruitment website. The service is administered by Department staff and provides a free online vacancy advertising and candidate matching service for employers who wish to advertise job vacancies, apprenticeships and community employment (CE) schemes. YESS vacancies can now also be advertised on JobsIreland.ie. The service is available to all employers irrespective of size or industry sector. In 2018, over 81,900 positions were advertised. JobsIreland.ie provides the opportunity to register and search for all the latest jobs in the market place. Through JobsIreland.ie candidates can create an online CV and it then notifies them automatically of vacancies that match their profile.

JobsPlus

JobsPlus, which was introduced in July 2013, provides a direct monthly financial incentive to employers who offer full-time employment opportunities to long-term unemployed people. The scheme was further enhanced from 1 January 2018 to support workers aged 50 or over into employment. In 2017, 6,128 employers availed of JobsPlus in respect of 8,960 employees. In 2018, some 5,409 employers availed of the scheme in respect of 7,556 employees.

Jobs Fairs

The Department hosts numerous Jobs Fairs and events throughout the year, with our annual Jobs Week a particular focus. The Department also co-hosts a number of events with EURES, the European Recruitment Service – in 2017 and 2018 there have been three on-site and five online EURES Jobs Fairs. The Department will continue to focus on working with employers throughout the country again this year to ensure that jobseekers can avail of the many jobs that are being created every week by employers.

Community Employment and TÚS schemes

The Department continues to provide valuable work experience for people who are long-term unemployed through Community Employment and TÚS schemes. These schemes also provide important local services in towns and villages throughout the country. At the end of December 2018 there are approximately 28,000 participants on these schemes, benefitting from work experience and training, whose localities also benefitted from the various services provided. hjk

JobPath has provided activation support to over 190,000 long term jobseekers since its inception in mid-2015. Jobseekers have benefitted from intensive engagement with a personal advisor to assist their return to employment. To date, the service has exceeded its targets, with 23% of its customers, securing employment while engaged with the service.

The continued provision of activation services to the long-term unemployed by Local Employment Services and Jobclubs. In 2018, some 26,000 customers have engaged with these services.